Prompts
An AI that just validates your startup idea is worse than no feedback at all
Ask most AI assistants to evaluate a startup idea and you get encouragement dressed up as analysis. These prompts are built to force the disconfirming question a founder actually needs answered.
Last updated Aug 15 · 13 min read
Why cheerleading is worse than no feedback
A generic prompt asking an AI to evaluate a business idea tends to produce enthusiasm with a thin veneer of analysis — validating language dressed up as rigor. The Startup & Strategy prompt library is built specifically to force real, disconfirming questions instead.
The foundational entry, idea validation with real hypothesis tests, structures validation as a set of falsifiable hypotheses to actually test, not a persuasive case to build.
Customer discovery and product-market fit signals
A Jobs-to-be-Done customer interview script gets past surface-level feature requests to the actual underlying job a customer is hiring your product for. Synthesizing raw customer discovery notes turns scattered conversations into a real pattern. And an honest product-market fit signal audit checks for real evidence rather than founder optimism.
Positioning, pricing, and go-to-market
A one-line positioning statement forces clarity most founders avoid by writing three paragraphs instead of one sharp sentence. Value-based pricing tiers price against actual customer value rather than cost-plus guessing. And a GTM channel bullseye test plan tests channels systematically instead of picking the one that sounds most exciting.
The investor conversation: deck, pitch and updates
A pitch deck narrative outline and a founder-market fit narrative both address the story half of fundraising, not just the slides. A monthly investor update email keeps existing investors genuinely informed between rounds, and tightening a YC application essay respects a format with almost no room for padding.
The unglamorous mechanics: term sheets, cap tables, equity splits
A plain-English SAFE term sheet mechanics explainer and a cap table dilution scenario explainer turn genuinely confusing mechanics into something a founder can actually reason about. A co-founder equity split framework structures a conversation many founding teams avoid having explicitly until it becomes a real problem.
Operating discipline: metrics, hiring, runway
Selecting a real North Star metric forces one honest measure of progress rather than a dashboard of vanity numbers. A first-hire scorecard brings rigor to the highest-stakes early decision a founder makes. And runway and burn-rate scenario planning forces the uncomfortable but necessary math before it becomes an emergency.
Learning from churn and running a real board meeting
Synthesizing churn exit interviews finds the real pattern behind lost customers rather than one loud anecdote. Structuring a board meeting deck and defining a real ICP from actual closed deals — data, not assumption — both bring the same evidence-first discipline to governance and targeting. A premortem risk exercise surfaces failure modes before they happen rather than after.
When the startup needs a real product built, not just planning
These prompts sharpen strategy and thinking. Building the actual product, MVP, or platform the strategy is meant to support is real engineering work. That's exactly what Scult's software team builds for founders, or book a meeting to talk through your build.
Need this built into your business?
The free tools and prompts on this site handle the small, solved problems. If what you need is bigger — custom software, built and maintained for you — that's Scult's day job.
